Most Silicon Valley venture capitalists would envy this fact about Vermont

If Vermont was a venture capital firm, it'd be ranked among the country's best when it comes to spotting billion-dollar tech companies.

Posted on August 07, 2017 by Artur Adib

Vermont is not a state typically associated with tech, but when you look at the data that’s a different story. In the last ten years alone, the green mountain state – which has a population of just over 600,000 – has seen two of its tech companies reach so-called ‘unicorn’ status, meaning their valuation reached more than one billion dollars.

Most venture capitalists would be ecstatic with one, let alone two of those companies in their early stage portfolio. Indeed, according to data by Quartz only a small fraction of firms can say they’ve ‘spotted’ a unicorn early on.

Vermont’s first unicorn was IDX, a healthcare software company based out of South Burlington and sold to General Electric for $1.2 billion in 2006. Eight years later, Burlington-based Dealer.com was acquired by Dealertrak for $1 billion. (Since then, IDX has become integrated with GE Healthcare, whereas Dealer.com and Dealertrack are now part of Cox Automotive’s portfolio of solutions for car dealerships.)

Nothing against skiing, maple syrup, or beer, but next time we think of Vermont, maybe we should think about tech too. ✌️